An Iranian official has announced publicly that Iran provided the Palestinian militant group Hamas with missile technology.

Mohsen Rezaei, the secretary of Iran's Expediency Council, was quoted by the Arabic channel of Iranian state television, Al-Alam, as saying that "Palestinian resistance missiles are the blessings of Iran's transfer of technology."

Rezaei was also quoted as saying that Iran needed "to transfer defensive and military technology to Palestinians so that they can build weapons under the blockade and defend themselves."

Rezaei, a former commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, wrote to Iranian President Hassan Rohani recently and urged him to send air-defense systems to Hamas to use against Israeli warplanes.

Rezaei also claimed that despite Israeli attacks in Gaza, the "facilities where weapons are produced remain intact."